2158 W. 24th ST.

2158 W. 24th ST

Does anybody remember this listing? It's baaaaccccckkkkkk! After a couple of false starts, we're finally marketing in earnest.

Kinney Heights Craftsman Retreat

A broad, recessed dormer and a bold two-story bay punctuate this dynamic early Craftsman form, with generous, extended eaves and supple rafters. The delightful complexity continues inside with substantial, successive, detail-rich rooms, each with dual exposure. Dramatic interplays of volume persist on the second floor with soaring, lancet-shaped cove ceilings, and an intimate, tree top sleeping porch. Sophisticated kitchen, with pantries, recycled glass tile backsplash, and superb linoleum inlay floor, opens onto a mature acacia tree, providing beautifully filtered ambiance, and picturesque sightline.

An unusually generous lot size, bolstered by an exceptionally wide frontage, is made even more pronounced by a relatively small building footprint. An unrivaled, outdoor life inducing green space results. The front garden is landscaped with live oaks, toyon, coral bells, lilacs and a host of California natives and climate-suited Mediterranean plants. Gravel mulch gives way to thick shows of wildflowers in spring. Stonework and a dry-stream bed by Pasadena firm Urban Organics capture and keep rainwater. The rear garden boasts a second arroyo, an Italian fountain, and meandering paths dividing beds stocked with apple, apricot and plum trees underplanted with roses, sage and lavender. At the rear is a raised bed for vegetables and a two-story carriage house with room for dirty play downstairs and a studio above.

2158 W. 24th ST 90018
3 beds, 1.5 baths
1,712 square feet
Year built: 1906
Lot size: 58 x 150
Lot Area: 8,700
$690,000

West Adams' Creative Canvas

West Adams Heritage Association Spring Tour

A doozy, entitled Art in Historic Places: West Adams' Creative Canvas, this year's tour showcases the work of West Adams resident artists.  Ten architecturally diverse venues are on tap, including those pictured, single family homes, a 1920's fourplex, a carriage house turned studio, and an early movie theatre.

Featured artists include: Rob Remer, Marina Moevs, Max Miceli, Sue Ann Jewers, Jenny Hager, Steven Irwin, Tom Lazarus, Taidgh O'Neill, Tolanna, Shelly Adler, Dianne Lawrence, Art Curtis, David Pacheco, Rory Cunningham, Susan Arena, Art Tobias, Mas Ojima, Donald Ferguson, Aaron Morse, Kim Lee Kahn, and Fredric Booker.

This self-guided, drive--or bike--yourself, tour is scheduled for 

Saturday, June 5th, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.  Tickets are $30 on the day of the event, at the check-in: 1824 S. 4th Avenue (at Washington Boulevard).

For more information, call 323-733-4223, or write tours@westadamsheritage.org; and, as always please wear shoes that won't mar hardwood surfaces.

America's Second Most Famous Architect?

In January, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) nominated ten Frank Lloyd Wright designed structures for inclusion on its list of world cultural heritage sites, an unparalleled honor. Wright is doubtlessly America's most famous architect. But who is number two?

I surveyed ten "archiphiles," a group of architects, planners, 

architectural historians, and authors. Responses varied, from Canadian born Frank Gehry to Chinese born I.M. Pei, from Thomas Jefferson to modernist mad men.

The consensus number two with a whopping two votes: Henry Hobson Richardson (or H.H. Richardson), a giant of late 19th century architecture, progenitor of the Richardsonian Romanesque Style, which loosely reinterpreted Medieval characteristics.

Is there another American cultural form so beholden to the legacy of a single practitioner? Who would vie for the mantle of America's greatest painter, film director, fiction writer? Miles Davis, Ansell Adams, Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, Elvis Presley, Fred Astaire, none seem as peerless as Mr. Frank Lloyd Wright.

(Images are of FLW's Hollyhock House)

No More Apologies

Despite a plethora of celebrated Mexican and Salvadorean eateries, barbecue and soul food spots, the restaurant scene in West Adams has seldom been trumpeted; and, the question--oft asked is, 'Does one have to leave the neighborhood for a decent meal?'

As it happens, the previously under-served USC area is exploding with new options, including a fleet of gourmet loncheras, mostly stationed along Jefferson and Hoover. Greek, Korean-Mexican fusion, Vietnamese, pizza by the slice, and desert trucks, an ever changing roster, have enlivened these bustling corridors.

Adjacent to the events center on Figueroa, the USC hospitality folks have assumed control, replacing a tired Sizzler with a gastropup (The Lab), replete with firepits and flatscreens, added an upscale surf-n-turf (McKay's), and a pizzeria.

At Grand Street and 37th, Mercado La Paloma, a former warehouse, hosts six restaurants and a couple handcraft vendors, sprinkled about communal space. Amongst the food choices: noted Peruvian-Japanese establishment Mo-Chica, and a satellite location of Westlake's legendary Yucatanean hot spot, Chicken Itza.

A veritable restaurant row is in the making, making my response easy.

Chalet Leftovers

Diamonds are Forever

The varied shingle idiom is amongst the defining characteristics of the late Victorian house styles.  

The diamond motif, possibly inspired by playing cards, appears often.

A void, filled inexplicably, by a curtain of vellum.

The term imbrication refers to the overlapping of shaped (patterned) tiles or shingles.

Image left features a diamond, set bindi-like, in a front facing gable.

April Fools Market

Real estate's new Magilla Gorilla is the escrow process, longer, and more onerous.  Appraisals are uncertain, rendered by out of area know nothings, loan approvals take an eternity to garner, lender demands: unceasing and often idiotic.  

Not only is the 30 day escrow process a thing of the past, but even a 45 day time frame is ambitious, perhaps ill advised.  Best plan on three months for an FHA deal.  Delays a plenty. Need synchronized closings?  Forget it, better to build in a seller rent-back.

The Appraisal Story

The appraiser surveyed the property, clipboard in hand, likely ignoring my neighborhood spiel.

"It's a new house," he blurted, questioningly.  

"No," I responded flatly--a bit astonished, "it was built in 1898.  Where are you from," I continued.

"La Canada," he volunteered, stealing a glance at his car, parked next to a hydrant.

"Have you ever been to this neighborhood before," I asked warily, "we're close to USC you know."

He hadn't, he didn't, and he tanked the value, comparing the property to others North of the freeway, apples and oranges.  

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Supposedly we're safeguarding the consumer, thwarting cronyism with these new reforms, Good Faith Estimates, and the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC), which mandates an anonymous appraiser pool rather than area-experienced specialists.  Frankly, I think it's bunk. Window dressing, at the consumer's expense, to mask financial mismanagement and a creative shortfall.